Movie review – “Murder by Television” (1936) * (warning: spoilers)

Very ordinary low budget melodrama which has a decent enough premise – inventor of a television set is found murdered – but sinks in a confusing, uninteresting plot and too many scenes of suspects being cross examined. Among the suspects are comic black servants, Irishman, etc. Bela Lugosi is on hand as a scientist – the best thing about the film is the revelation at the end that Bela is playing a dual role, with Bela as an investigating FBI agent. Bela Lugosi as twins – that’s a great idea for a film. Ditto the concept of Bela Lugosi as an investigating agent. But here we only find out about it at the end.